[PREV - PROPORTIONS]    [TOP]

STATEGIC_BOMBARDMENT

                                             November 25, 2006

Of the many and various
twentieth century
propaganda bombs we've
had to endure, one of
the more evil has been
the doctrine of
"strategic bombing".                Strategy = high level,
                                               long term thinking.
"Strategic bombing"
is supposed to be about             as opposed to
reducing your enemy's
industrial capability               Tactics  = the low-level means used
to produce weapons.                            to accomplish strategy

What it really means                                         And still higher
is targeting civilian                                        level than
populations.               (That's supposed to be a          Strategy would
                           "war crime", in case you          be Policy.
  It certainly would       couldn't tell.)
  be nice to be able                                         And above that,
  to call spades like                                        Polity? (Ha.)
  this a spade without
  being accused of
  over-heated
  rhetoric.  Why not
  "slaughtering                                              (Dec 31, 2013)
  innocent women and     Pardon my
  children"?             sexism.           "... a world in which it is wrong
                         And ageism        to murder an individual civilian
                                           and right to drop a thousand tons
                                           of high explosive on a residential
                                           area does sometimes make me wonder
  One of the many problems with the        whether this earth of ours is not a
  "anti-nuclear" religion is the           loony bin made use of by some other
  idea that strategic bombing is           planet."  -- George Orwell, "As I
  bad only if it's done with nuclear       Please" (1943), via Brad DeLong
  weapons.
                                           http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/warguilt.html
         Frying a city with
         phosphorous bombs is fine.             SHOOT_FIRST
         Even if it kills the
         same number of people
         as a multi-megaton nuke.

















--------
[NEXT - HIROSHIMA]